How can ChatGPT be used by restaurants and hospitality businesses?
It might seem like everyone is talking about the latest tool in artificial intelligence, ChatGPT and people are finding ingenious ways to utilise the tool to support their businesses. So, as a hospitality business owner or manager, you might be thinking – “how can I use ChatGPT in my business?”.
In this article, we’re going to look at some of the ways that hospitality businesses can harness the powerful chat tool to help them with some of the day to day tasks that can take up lots of time. From marketing messaging to menus – you might be surprised how you can utilise ChatGPT in your business.
What is ChatGPT and how are businesses using it?
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI. It is based on the GPT-3.5 architecture, which uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to user inputs.
Since it’s launch in November 2022, the clever AI tool has amassed more than 100 million users as reported by Exploding Topics last month – making it the fastest growing platform in history.
ChatGPT's rise in popularity can be attributed to its ability to have natural, human-like conversations with users, making it a valuable tool for a variety of applications, including customer service, language translation and even entertainment. And the discourse is split as to whether the tool is a time-saving, business resource or places some jobs under threat of extinction.
So, what does this all mean for hospitality businesses? There’s not much likelihood that AI robots are about to take over cooking in the kitchen or pulling a pint – but there are plenty of ways that AI chatbot technology can help support a variety of marketing, automation and research tasks for any hospitality business.
How can hospitality businesses use ChatGPT?
Here are some examples of how hospitality businesses can use ChatGPT to improve their operations and enhance the customer experience:
- Generating menu ideas
- Creating social media posts
- Assisting with marketing emails
- Research and analysis
- As an intelligent chatbot for customer enquiries
Examples of how your hospitality business can use ChatGPT:
Example ChatGPT prompts for marketing emails:
Another effective use of ChatGPT for hospitality businesses is to generate marketing emails that resonate with customers.
To make the most of ChatGPT's email writing capabilities, it's helpful to provide specific keywords related to the type of email you're looking to create. This can include details about promotions, special offers, or upcoming events. Additionally, you can add in information about your venue or business to help make the email more personalised and relevant to your audience.
ChatGPT's ability to analyse customer data can also help businesses segment their email lists and send targeted messages to specific groups of customers. This can improve the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns and lead to higher conversion rates. With ChatGPT, hospitality businesses can streamline their email marketing efforts, save time and resources, and ultimately drive more revenue for their business.
Here are some examples of prompts you can use on ChatGPT to help you with email marketing
- Write an informative and engaging marketing email to be sent to existing customer base promoting the new summer menu for our family friendly English pub venue including subject line [link to menu or post dishes]
- Write an email promoting this restaurant [restaurant website] for a target audience of age 25-45 couples
- write a marketing email for this restaurant [restaurant website] with a CTA to book a table online
Here is ChatGPT’s response to the first query in this list. It’s important to be as specific as possible about your business, so this example is pretty generic and the AI has had to make assumptions as to some of the content. You’ll also need to tweak the content according to your brand identity and audience, including the greeting and sign off:
Subject: Sizzling Summer Menu Now Available at Our Family-Friendly Pub!
Dear Valued Customers,
We hope this email finds you well and ready for a delicious summer season ahead! We're thrilled to announce the launch of our new summer menu here at our family-friendly English pub. Our talented chefs have been hard at work preparing a mouth-watering selection of dishes that we know you'll love.
From classic pub favorites to new seasonal specials, our summer menu offers something for everyone. Here are some highlights:
- Starters: Our garlic and herb bread and crispy calamari are perfect for sharing with friends and family. For something lighter, our summer salad with fresh berries and goat cheese is a refreshing choice.
- Mains: Our juicy burgers and beer-battered fish and chips are always popular choices. For a taste of summer, try our grilled chicken and vegetable skewers with a zesty citrus dressing, or our seafood linguine with prawns, clams, and mussels.
- Desserts: Our classic Eton mess and sticky toffee pudding are the perfect sweet treats to end your meal on a high note. For something lighter, try our mixed berry sorbet.
And let's not forget about our extensive drinks menu, featuring ice-cold beers, refreshing cocktails, and a selection of fine wines.
We take great pride in our family-friendly atmosphere and exceptional service, and we know that you'll feel right at home here at our pub. Whether you're looking for a cozy dinner with loved ones or a fun night out with friends, we have you covered.
We encourage you to come and try our new summer menu, and we recommend booking a table in advance to avoid disappointment. You can easily book online through our website or by giving us a call.
Thank you for your continued support, and we can't wait to see you soon!
Best regards,
[Your Name] The [Pub Name] Team
Example ChatGPT prompts for conducting research:
Another way ChatGPT can be used in the hospitality industry is for conducting market research, competitor analysis and other types of data analysis. By leveraging ChatGPT's data analysis capabilities, businesses can gain a better understanding of their target audience and identify areas for improvement. For example, ChatGPT can help businesses identify gaps in their menu offerings or highlight areas where their competitors excel. This information can then be used to inform menu development, marketing strategies and other business decisions.
To make the most of ChatGPT's data analysis capabilities, it's important to provide specific keywords and data sets related to the research or analysis you want to conduct. This can include customer reviews, social media mentions, and other relevant data sources. By working with ChatGPT, hospitality businesses can gain valuable insights into their market and stay ahead of their competition.
- What are the most popular restaurant dishes in the UK in restaurants?
- What are the most popular vegan dishes in Manchester, England according to online reviews
- What are the most popular takeaway food categories in Essex, England?
- according to online reviews what are the most popular indian restaurants in Newcastle?
As usual, it’s important to remember that the more information you provide, the more relevant the results will be. ChatGPT is not always the most up to date source – but it will generally tell you this in its response.
Here is ChatGPT’s answer to the last query:
I'm sorry, but as a language model, I do not have real-time access to the internet to check for online reviews. However, I can suggest some popular Indian restaurants in Newcastle based on the overall ratings on popular review platforms like Google, Yelp, and Tripadvisor:
- Dabbawal - a contemporary Indian street food restaurant
- Raval - a modern Indian restaurant with a focus on regional dishes
- Thali Tray - a casual eatery serving thali plates and Indian street food
- Mithas - a fine dining restaurant serving North Indian cuisine
- Spice Cube - a family-run restaurant serving traditional Indian dishes
Please note that these suggestions may not reflect the most recent or up-to-date reviews, and personal preferences may vary.
Example ChatGPT prompts for customer enquiries:
Another area where ChatGPT can be particularly helpful for small and independent hospitality businesses is in managing customer enquiries and complaints. With limited staff resources, it can be challenging to respond to every customer enquiry or complaint in a timely and effective manner. ChatGPT can help alleviate this burden by providing businesses with an AI-powered customer service assistant.
By training ChatGPT on frequently asked questions and potential complaints, the tool can generate responses to common customer queries or concerns. This can save business owners time and effort, as they can quickly provide a response without having to compose a message from scratch. Moreover, ChatGPT's responses can be tailored to the brand's voice and tone, ensuring consistency across all customer interactions.
To make the most of ChatGPT's customer service capabilities, businesses can provide the tool with a list of frequently asked questions, as well as any previous customer feedback or complaints. This will help ChatGPT understand the types of enquiries and complaints that the business typically receives, and generate responses that are more likely to address customers' needs and concerns.
By using ChatGPT to handle customer enquiries and complaints, hospitality businesses can improve their response times, provide more personalised customer service, and free up staff resources to focus on other important areas of the business.
ChatGPT can be used as a chatbot that directly answers customer queries, but you can also use basic prompts to help with specific actions, here are some examples:
- Answer these frequently asked questions using information from this website [insert business website] [upload list of questions]
- write a response to this negative customer review [paste customer compliant]
Using ChatGPT can help you to structure a response to customers without having to write it from scratch, just be sure to personalise the information as AI is no replacement for the human touch when it comes to customer service. Here is ChatGPT’s response to an example complaint:
Write a response to this negative customer review: “Took an hour to get food. Food was dry and not cooked well and my friend found hair in her food. It was a busy night I get it, but worst service I have ever experienced. Go ANYWHERE else.”
Dear [Customer],
Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we apologize for the inconvenience caused. We take all feedback seriously and are disappointed to hear that your recent visit was not up to our usual standards.
We understand that the wait time was longer than expected, and we apologize for the delay. We are constantly working on improving our service and will ensure that our kitchen staff is more efficient during busy periods.
We are also sorry to hear that the food did not meet your expectations and that your friend found a hair in their meal. This is not acceptable, and we will be sure to investigate and take corrective action to prevent similar occurrences from happening in the future.
We hope that you will give us another chance to make things right and provide you with a better dining experience. Please reach out to us directly so that we can discuss how we can improve and make amends for your past experience.
Thank you for your feedback and we hope to hear from you soon.
Best regards, [Restaurant Name]
What are the downsides to using ChatGPT as a hospitality business?
As discussed, ChatGPT does have its limitations. Here we look at some of the things you should bear in mind when using ChatGPT:
Out of date information
The tool’s knowledge base is limited to information up to 2021, so you cannot guarantee to have the most up to date information – so you should always fact check any copy produced yourself.
Tone and context
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot and cannot understand the breadth of context in the human language – such as detecting sarcasm in a customer compliant or suggesting topics in an email that are inappropriate for the audience. Again, it’s down to us to edit and check the work produced by AI tools.
Originality
Remember that whatever prompt you use, anyone else can use too – so to make sure you generate unique ideas, it’s important to feed in as much detail as possible and add your own spin where necessary – such as adapting recipe ideas to fit your venue’s vibe.
Summary
In conclusion, ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for hospitality businesses in many ways. It can be used to generate engaging social media posts, assist with market research and competitor analysis, answer customer enquiries and complaints and even provide personalised recommendations for guests. By leveraging the power of AI, businesses can save time, streamline processes, and provide better customer experiences. From providing quick responses to enquiries to improving the quality of menu items, ChatGPT has shown great potential to help businesses thrive.
In this article, we have covered several examples of how businesses can benefit from using ChatGPT, but the possibilities are endless. We encourage hospitality businesses to try ChatGPT for themselves and see how it can make a positive impact on their operations.
And don’t forget to check out our article on other ways AI is being used in hospitality.
You might also be interested in:
- Top technology trends for hospitality in 2024
- Hospitality Tech Trend Guide 2024 - download
- Best email marketing strategies and tips for restaurants
- Hospitality software solutions to support a real-world impact on your hospitality operations
Example ChatGPT prompts for social media posts:
ChatGPT' can also be leveraged to assist in social media management – which is great for small and independent businesses that may not have dedicated social media managers in their business. The tool can be used in generating engaging and on-brand social media posts. By analysing customer data and preferences, ChatGPT can suggest ideas for posts that are more likely to resonate with customers and increase engagement.
To make the most of ChatGPT's social media post generation capabilities, it's helpful to provide specific keywords related to the type of post you're looking to create. This can include hashtags, trending topics, and relevant keywords. Additionally, you can add in information about your venue to help make the post more personalised and unique to your business. By working with ChatGPT, hospitality businesses can streamline their social media management, save time and maintain a consistent online presence.
Here are some examples of prompts you can use on ChatGPT to help you with social media management:
Here is ChatGPT’s answer for the last prompt which has generated creative and engaging social media posts, complete with emojis and suggested hashtags that you could use. The more information you give the tool, the more relevant the posts will be.